


Not so Happily Ever After

by Thundersnow (pieprincess_andthe_fallenangel)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: BAMF Leonard Snart, Canon Compliant, ColdFlash Week, ColdFlash Week 2016, Curses, Fairy Tales, Fluff, Fluff not Fear, Humour, M/M, Metahumans, Pining, Series Spoilers, Sexual Tension, Sleeping Curse, because they already think that Len and Barry are doing it, no Flashpoint, no legends of tomorrow, sleeping potion, so they’ve kinda got passed the shock of it all by this point, supportive friends, this is hella sappy at times, true loves kiss, whoops?, with few exceptions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-05
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-06 18:34:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8764399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pieprincess_andthe_fallenangel/pseuds/Thundersnow
Summary: He allowed himself to look over at Barry. The younger man was huddled close to the fire and seeking as much warmth as he could get from the small flames. For a moment, only a moment, Len thought about offering to huddle together for more heat. But he shut that thought down quickly. He couldn’t allow himself to indulge in naïve fantasies. Barry, unaware of Len’s attention on him, was staring into the flames. The warm yellow light flickered across his face and highlighted his features beautifully. The kid really was a sight to behold… .Or the fic where Barry and Len get trapped inside a fairy tale book, without powers or the cold gun, and have to work together to get free. Lots of thievery ensures as well as an unfortunately timed sleeping curse.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Coldflash week! Today is Day 2: Fairy Tales.
> 
> I didn't post anything yesterday because I just had too much going on to write 7 new fanfics. So I wrote only 5 instead :) this one is a bit odd and without… well, any real plot, tbh. But hopefully you guys will enjoy it nonetheless.

Cisco reclined back in his seat as he listened to Barry and Cold quip at each other through the comms unit attached to Barry's suit. It was getting late and so both Caitlin and Harry had already left for the night. They usually took it in turns for who stayed until the very end of the night and this time it was Cisco's job.

He turned the comms off on his side and relaxed a little, leaving the speakers on so he could still hear what was happening in case Barry needed him… but that was unlikely. It wasn't like Captain Cold was going to hurt Barry. He didn't even _try_ to anymore.

" _Snart, put the diamonds back. You don't have to do this_."

" _Your voice gives me chills when it's all… commanding like that, Barry, it really does. But you know I can't resist the ice._ " Cisco sighed, resigned to the fact that he would have to listen to them flirt with each other _again_ , and picked up a slinky from his desk.

He moved it from one hand to the other as he put his feet up on the desk, muttering the slinky song to himself.

"A spring, a spring, a marvellous thing! Everyone knows it's slinky. It's slinky, it's slinky. Everybody loves a _slinky_ ," he murmured as he kept going. But then, suddenly, there was another voice coming through the comms. Cisco didn't really notice at first, not until Barry started shouting. Cisco threw the slinky to the ground and quickly turned his microphone on.

" _Barry_? Barry, what's going on?" He half-shouted, sitting to attention. "Barry, talk to me," he muttered anxiously but then there was a loud squealing coming from the speakers and Cisco flinched, covering his ears to protect them. The sound stopped as the line turned static. "Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, _no_ …"

Cisco tried, unsuccessfully, to bring the comms back online. And when that failed he tried to track Barry's suit… but the GPS wasn't working. Cisco blinked at the screen for barely a second before he grabbed the keys to the STAR Labs van and ran to the car park.

He may have broken a couple of speed limits as he gunned the van down the roads to Barry's last known location: a jewellery store on Third Street. But it proved to be a fruitless effort because, when he got there, the street was being cordoned off by the cops. _At least there didn't seem to be an ambulance there_ , Cisco thought. That meant that Barry wasn't hurt. Right? Maybe he was already back at STAR Labs and waiting for Cisco to come back and fix his suit?

So Cisco went back, but there was no trace of Barry in the labs. With his heart in his throat, he rang for backup. Within half an hour, Harry, Joe, and Caitlin were all back at the labs.

"I don't know what happened," Cisco admitted, pitifully, after telling them all that Barry was missing.

"What do you mean you _don't know_?" Joe demanded and Cisco shrunk in on himself.

"I mean, Barry and Cold were," _flirting_ , "bantering, but then some woman showed up and the comms turned static. I can't get them back online and I can't track his suit."

"Have you tried… turning it off and on again?" Joe eventually suggested after pacing the cortex for a while.

"I don't really think it's that simple, Joe," Cisco muttered but was faced with a glare so he did it anyway. As the system was rebooting, Cisco couldn't help but hope that Joe was right and there was just a problem with the software. Hopefully Barry was still out there with Captain Cold doing… well, whatever it was they did when no one was listening in. It was pretty obvious that there was _something_ going on between them, but Cisco didn't quite know what that something was. He and Caitlin had both decided that it was just better to not push Barry for the details.

When the system came back online, there was still no trace of Barry.

Harry, Cisco, and Caitlin all started working on ways to force his suit back online as Joe went to the crime scene. But, an hour later and they still weren't having any luck. Cisco rubbed at his eyes, sore from being awake for too long and having to stare at his too bright computer screen. Eventually, Joe rang and Cisco put him on speaker so that they could all confer.

"Have you found anything, Joe?" Caitlin asked, her voice much calmer, for Joe's sake, than it had been ten minutes ago.

"No, there's nothing here," Joe sighed. "The diamonds are gone and there's ice everywhere. But other than that, the only thing out of place is a book."

"A book?" Harry asked, sitting up a little straighter.

"Yeah. There are no bookshelves around so we're assuming that someone must have dropped it during the heist. Maybe it was that mystery woman's," Joe suggested, his voice flat.

"What kind of book?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, some fairy tale. Why?" He asked

"The Fairy Godmother…" Harry muttered.

"Are you suggesting that a fairy tale is behind this?" Cisco snarked, one eyebrow raised high on his head. Not that that would really be a weird occurrence in Central…

"No, Cisco. There was a meta back on my earth, she called herself the Fairy Godmother, she could send people _into_ fictional realities."

"Wait. Are you saying…?" Caitlin started but then shook her head.

"That Barry is inside that book? Yes. It's possible. And Leonard Snart might be stuck in there with him."

"I'm not going to be losing any sleep about Snart," Joe muttered. "But how do we get Barry out of there?"

"We don't. He'll have to find his own way out."

[] [] []

Len was pulled from his slumber suddenly. He wasn't sure exactly how long he'd been asleep for and that was unsettling because his internal clock was _always_ running. He quickly blinked his eyes open and stared up at the cloudy grey sky above. When had he gotten outside? Had Barry run him out here?

He sat up slowly and took note of the unfamiliar area. Then he noticed Barry lying a few feet away. Except he wasn't in the Flash suit anymore. Instead, Barry was wearing brown baggy pants with a cream coloured cotton shirt. Len frowned and then looked down at his own clothes to find that he was wearing something similar.

He jumped up to his feet then, noticing the absence of his cold gun from his thigh. _Fuck_.

"Barry, wake up," Len called loudly and the speedster flinched and sat up suddenly. He blinked slowly at him and then frowned.

"What are you _wearing_?" Barry muttered and Len's eyebrow raised high on his forehead.

"I could ask you the same question," he drawled. "Did you take my cold gun?"

"Huh?" Barry muttered, too distracted by pulling at the unfamiliar clothes on his body.

"My _cold gun_ , Barry. It's gone. Did you take it?" He asked again, this time louder and slower. But Barry's confused face was all the answer that Len needed. He sighed and ran a hand down his face slowly. "Then that woman must have it," he muttered. Barry frowned at him and then his eyes suddenly went wide as he seemed to remember what had happened in the moments before they were knocked unconscious.

"Was she with you?" Barry accused, finally pulling himself up off the floor.

"I've never seen her before in my life," Len admitted. He would know, too, what with his eidetic memory. Len looked around at the scenery again: they were on some gravelled road in the middle of a forest. He didn't recall anywhere remotely like this in Central. "Where are we?" He eventually asked and Barry frowned at the trees surrounding them too.

"I have no idea." With a bit of effort, Len was able to hear the sound of people nearby. He began to walk in that direction. "Where are you going?" Barry called after him.

"Well, I'm not just going to stand around in a forest all day, Scarlet," Len snarked. He heard Barry's feet crunching on the stones behind him, and when the noise stopped suddenly Len turned around. Barry was staring down at his hands, his mouth agape and his eyes wide and looking scared. "What's wrong?" He asked carefully after doing another quick surveillance of the woods surrounding them. There still didn't seem to be anyone in sight.

"I… I don't have my speed," Barry admitted and Len raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're sure?" He asked, despite seeing the answer in Barry's eyes. And that was… unsettling. Whoever this metahuman was, she had knocked them unconscious and stranded them somewhere unknown without his cold gun _and_ without Barry's powers? Len would have asked how that was even possible but he'd seen enough in this past 2 years in Central for him to give up on all sense of rationality. He just shrugged.

"Does that not worry you?" Barry asked, indignant.

"Not really. I don't make a habit of counting on other people to get me out of a tight spot," Len drawled. He hadn't included Barry or his powers into his initial assessment of his situation and so nothing had really changed for Len now. When Barry's eyes started to take on puppy-like characteristics, Len turned around and started back on his original course towards the sound of people gathering ahead. "Are you coming?" He eventually called back over his shoulder when he heard no movement behind him. Barry quickly rushed to his side and they continued onwards together in silence.

"This is not what I was expecting," Barry muttered a minute later when they cleared the last trees and saw a small village ahead of them. Except… this didn't look like _just any_ kind of village. The houses were small and made of cobblestone with thatch roofs and the roads were unpaved and messy. There wasn't a single car in sight but there were plenty of animals: horses and donkeys were tied up outside buildings or pulling carts down the road and there was a small collection of farm animals loitering around a troth of water. "God dammit, did I run back in time again?" Barry muttered so quietly that Len had to assume he wasn't supposed to hear it.

Still, he could barely contain his surprise at the speedster's words. As he looked at Barry, he noticed a piece of paper attached to a tree next to him and Len's eyes went wide. He slowly walked over, reading and re-reading the words on the wanted poster over and over again. This had to be a joke, right?

"Is that _Snow White_?" Barry asked, shocked, as he read the poster from over Len's shoulder. Len tried to brush it off as a joke but his gut was telling him that this was real.

"Well, this is just fantastic. I'm stuck inside a god damn fairy tale with the Flash," he muttered. After a moment he ripped the poster off the tree and crumpled it up it a ball which he dropped to the floor. It wasn't as therapeutic and Len thought it'd be. Maybe he should have torn it up instead? Or, Len didn't usually like fire but he might make an exception in this case, burned it?

Barry seemed… shocked. But at least Len wasn't the only one having a hard time coming to terms with this situation. After a while they moved further into the village. Barry sat down at a random porch, seeming deep in thought, and Len remained standing and watched the people ( _characters_?) around him.

"I'm going to take a look around," he declared and was moving away before Barry could respond. He came back an hour later with a half-eaten apple in one hand and a satchel thrown over his shoulder.

"Where did you get that?" Barry eyed the apple with obvious hunger in his gaze, and Len shrugged.

"The cart in the next street," Len admitted before taking another bite. He dug another one out of the satchel he'd found and tossed it to Barry, who stumbled but managed to catch it.

"How did you pay for it?" He asked suspiciously and Len took another bite before replying.

"I didn't."

"I'm not eating anything you've _stolen_ ," Barry declared and Len shrugged once more.

"Then don't eat it," he replied, unaffected. Barry looked from Len back down to the apple in his hands with a look of pure _want_ : they had obviously been unconscious for quite a few hours and so Len didn't blame the kid for being hungry. Eventually though he shook his head and handed the apple back to Len, looking like it was the most difficult thing he'd ever had to do.

Len admired the kid's willpower but also found it idiotic: they were in a foreign place without any money. If he wasn't going to eat anything Len had stolen, then how was he expecting to survive?

"So, any thoughts on how to get out of this one?" Len asked and Barry shook his head.

"I've never done anything like this," Barry muttered. "Especially not without my powers." After a moment, Len handed him the apple back.

"Brain food," he explained, though really he just wanted to make sure the not-speedster didn't starve. After a short pause, Barry begrudgingly accepted it. As the kid stared at the apple in his hand without taking a bite, Len noticed the darker grey clouds forming above their heads. He realised they'd have to find shelter soon and started to think over all of the seemingly-empty houses that he'd seen on his walk.

"Should we even be eating apples?" Barry asked. "I mean, if we're inside Snow White, then aren't the apples poisoned?"

"There was only one poison apple in Snow White, Barry," Len drawled and Barry chewed that over for a little longer before taking a bite. He sighed contently, obviously hungry, and ate the rest quickly. When he was finished, Len led him to a house he remembered spotting a few streets away.

"I'm not breaking into a house, Snart!"

"Just like you wouldn't eat anything I'd stolen?" Len snarked and then popped the lock on the door. Barry hovered in the doorway and Len sighed. "Barry, we've probably got about half an hour before that storm settles in," he said, nodding his head in the direction of the large mass of grey clouds forming. "So, you can either come inside or stand out in the rain. Your choice."

Barry's shoulders sunk as he moved past the threshold and into the house. Len shut the door after him and went to the fire pit in the middle of the room to start it up. By the time the fire was full flame, the rain was pounding against the thin walls of the house and the temperature had dropped drastically. Len took out a couple of loaves of bread, that he'd stolen, from the satchel and passed one to Barry. This time, the kid ate it without complaint.

They sat in comfortable silence around the fire for a little while, the rest of the house dark due to the grey clouds filling the sky and reducing the sunlight. It was getting late anyway and Len didn't expect it to get light any time soon. He took a while to think over his and Barry's current situation but answers to this particular problem alluded him.

He allowed himself to look over at Barry. The younger man was huddled close to the fire and seeking as much warmth as he could get from the small flames. For a moment, _only_ a moment, Len thought about offering to huddle together for more heat. But he shut that thought down quickly. He couldn't allow himself to indulge in naive fantasies. Barry, unaware of Len's attention on him, was staring (Or maybe it was better described as pouting?) into the flames. The warm yellow light flickered across his face and highlighted his features beautifully. The kid really was a sight to behold…

"Barry?" Came a voice from behind them and Len was instantly on his feet and reaching for a cold gun that wasn't there.

"Cisco," Barry breathed, happily, after jumping nearly a foot in the air. Len had to admit that he was relieved to see the scientist, even if he did appear to be slightly translucent and intangible. He was wearing an odd pair of visors that made Len frown momentarily but Barry seemed to be unfazed by them.

"Thank god you're okay. The book was a little water damaged and so we were worried something might have happened to you," Cisco rambled quickly.

"Book?" Len asked and Cisco finally looked at him.

"And good, Cold made it too," he muttered in monotone and Len purposefully made his smirk appear more menacing than normal. "Yeah, you guys are trapped inside Snow White," Cisco eventually admitted and turned back to Barry.

"Can you get us out?" Barry asked and Cisco shook his head.

"No, Harry said that's up to you. He said you have to find the end of the world, an area that hasn't been written into the book," he explained and Barry frowned.

"An unwritten part of the book," Barry repeated thoughtfully. "How are we going to find that?" Cisco mulled it over before opening his mouth to reply. His lips were moving but no words were coming out. The engineer's appearance started to fade quickly and Barry took a concerned step forward.

" _Wait_ ," Barry called, but Cisco was already gone. Len sat down next to the fire once more and, eventually, Barry joined him. The younger man was looking forlorn and Len just managed to resist rolling his eyes, choosing to sigh instead.

"I'm sure once we get far enough out of the main town there will be plenty of unwritten roads to find," he muttered, staring into the flames and listening to the howling wind outside. They'd have to wait until the storm had passed before they went anywhere.

It wasn't long before there were noises outside the house and Len knew that the owners had come home. Barry looked scared and Len realised suddenly how lost the younger man was without his speed, feeling bad for him. Len couldn't imagine how he'd be if he lost something so integral to himself.

"I'll take care of it," Len announced, standing up.

"Snart, no! Remember our deal?" Barry insisted, jumping to his feet, and Len frowned. He hadn't been thinking of actually killing them, though he realised now that his words had probably been poorly chosen, he was just going to knock them out and tie them up somewhere. But... still...

"Barry… they're characters in a fairy tale book! They aren't _real_ ," he insisted but Barry looked just as upset. "Relax. I'm not going to kill the fictional characters."

"I'll talk to them," Barry continued to insist and Len sighed and took a step back, gesturing that he would let Barry take lead here.

If Barry couldn't talk them into sharing their home for the afternoon, and Len doubted that he could, then Len would just move on to plan B. When the owners walked in, a man and a woman, Barry was already standing by the door with his hands in the air and looking as innocent and harmless as a puppy.

"We're not going to hurt you," Barry said, raising both of his hands up a little higher in his innocent gesture, before either of them could react to the realisation that there were strangers in their house. "Me and my… friend just needed somewhere to go to get out of the storm." Len couldn't see Barry's face but, from the soft look on the women's, he assumed he was using his puppy dog eyes. And… it seemed to be working? Interesting. The couple shared a look, their eyes both soft with a sympathy that Len was sure he had never received from anyone before… except from Barry, that is.

"Of course you can stay. Until the storm passes, that is," the woman announced, after conferring momentarily with her husband, and the man nodded along with her. Barry glanced back at Len with a wide grin on his face and thanked the couple profusely. They introduced themselves and the couple added another log to the fire before all four of them settled around it again. Len wasn't used to this kind of automatic kindness, but he supposed he should have expected it: they were inside of a fairy tale, after all.

Len considered just sitting back and staying quiet as Barry talked animatedly with the couple. However, he knew that could come off standoffish and he didn't want the couple to throw them out. So, he swallowed his pride and decided to just go along with Barry's plan. Len smiled at the woman and took the last of the food out of his satchel, he could always steal more once the rain eased up or tomorrow if they were still stuck here, and offered to help make the four of them dinner.

It ended up being a simple soup, but Len was fairly pleased with how it turned out… considering the complete lack of herbs and spices available. The couple gave them both a cup of water, though Len was reluctant to touch it bearing in mind the lack of a proper water filtration system here. The sooner he could be back home, the better. Barry, however, didn't seem to share his concerns. He downed his cup of water fairly quickly and then eyed the jug on the table.

"Snart," he muttered to get Len's attention. "Pass me the jug?" Len wanted to point out how unsafe the water might be here but he knew that would come across as rude and so he bit his tongue and passed the jug to him instead: Barry was a quick healer anyway, if he caught anything here then Len was sure it wouldn't last for long once they got back home.

"Why do you call him by his last name?" The woman asked, curiously, and Barry frowned as though the thought of calling Len by his first name was absurd.

"Yeah, Barry, why do you always call me Snart?" Len added on, a smirk on his face.

"What? Do you want me to start calling you Leonard?"

"Do you want me to start calling you _Bartholomew_?" Len snarked back and Barry grimaced. "Len. My name is Len."

"I… okay… Len," Barry said slowly, as though he wasn't _really_ sure he was allowed to say Len's name. There was silence in the house for a moment, quiet enough for Len to notice that the howling wind and patter of rain had stopped. He stood up and smiled charmingly at the couple.

"Thank you so much for your generosity. But I believe the storm has passed now so we really should be on our way," Len excused them, motioning for Barry to follow him. Barry quickly scrambled to his feet and said goodbye to the couple as Len picked up his empty satchel from beside the fire. He opened the door and looked out onto the cool afternoon; the sky was clearer now, allowing Len to be able to see the setting sun beyond the trees.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay in the warmth for a little longer?" Barry asked, looking as though he missed the fire's heat already. "We don't know how long we'll have to walk for." The kid made a good point, except they weren't going to be walking anywhere.

"There's a stable nearby," Len countered as they made their way away from the cobblestone house. "I'm sure it won't take long to find somewhere unwritten while on horseback."

"You… you can't just steal a _horse_ , Len!" Barry protested and Len levelled him with an unamused glare. This argument was getting old.

"It doesn't have an owner, Barry. It's _fictional_." Barry frowned and didn't say anything else. But Len could still see the hesitance in his eyes. "Don't you want to go back home?" Len goaded and Barry slowly nodding his head. Len didn't grin with triumph but he had a real urge to.

He led Barry to the stable and picked the two closest horses, both of them looked strong and young, and handed their reins to Barry as he began searching for saddles. After securing them onto the horses they led them both outside and Len swiftly climbed on the back of his. He looked down at Barry, expecting to see him floundering about trying to get on the horse, but instead Barry was just frowning at the saddle with an unsure expression on his face.

"What? Have you never ridden a horse before?" Len drawled and Barry glared at him.

"Oh, and you _have_?" Barry scoffed as though it was ridiculous and Len shrugged.

"A couple of times," he admitted and smirked at the look of surprised that crossed Barry's face. He wasn't going to mention that it had been over ten years since he was last on the back of a horse nor that he had only actually done it in the first place because Lisa wanted to learn when she was a teenager, but she didn't want to go alone.

Len took a moment to consider showing Barry the basics of horse riding, just enough for them to be on their way, but he soon realised that it was a waste of time. Len was bored of this world, he wanted to be home already, so he didn't want to trot along at a beginner's pace. Eventually Len scooted as far forward as he could go on the saddle, so that there was enough room for Barry behind him, and offered his hand out to the younger man.

"Come on," Len muttered and Barry looked at his hand as though it was a snake. After three very long seconds, Barry finally accepted it and Len helped him up.

It was a bit snug on the saddle, but Len wasn't willing to ride bare back so it'd have to do. He was extremely aware of how close Barry was pressed up against his back, but he just gritted his teeth and tried to think past it.

"Hold on and try to copy whatever I do," Len ordered as he manoeuvred Barry's hands to his hips and started the horse moving. They trotted for a moment, leaving the second horse behind, as Len allowed the cool breeze to clear his head of all thoughts of Barry's skin against his own.

Remembering the lessons that he and Lisa took, he leaned forward and eased the horse into a gallop.

[] [] []

Barry was very, _extremely_ , conscious of the fact that his dick was pressed directly against Len's ass. If he got an erection, then there would be no way to hide it because Len would _definitely_ feel that. Barry took a few slow, deep breaths and tried to think of dead kittens because this was _not happening_! Nope. No way. He was _not_ going to get aroused right now.

Except… Len's body was rubbing against his as they rode and it was all kinds of sinful. Shit. Dead puppies. Crime scenes. The last time that Iris rejected him. Wow… that last one was working… Barry definitely needed to keep thinking about that. About a minute passed and they were now out of the village and galloping through the woods, Barry concentrating very hard on _not_ getting hard, when there was a noise in the woods that drew his attention.

"Stop, stop!" Barry called to Len, who slowed the horse down considerably before sitting up and looking over his shoulder at Barry.

"What now, Kid?" He drawled and Barry shushed him, listening. A second later he heard it again: a woman screaming. Barry was scrambling off of the horse, and almost falling flat on his face, before he even had time to think it through. "Barry! Where are you going? God dammit, Kid!" Len called out after him as he ran towards the sound. He didn't look back but he heard a thud as Len, probably gracefully, dismantled from the horse and started following after him.

Only a few seconds later Barry saw a woman running in the woods and being pursued by a man dressed in a black cloak. Barry didn't think, he just ran at the man and tried to knock him down. But Barry wasn't fast enough anymore. The man saw him approaching and began to swing the long knife he was holding in Barry's direction. Barry stumbled and fell to the ground as he tried to dodge the blade. He managed to scramble to his feet but not fast enough. Soon the man was standing right in front of him and Barry saw his life flash before his eyes as he could do nothing more than use his arm to protect his face.

But then Len was knocking him to the floor and out of the path of the blade. Barry blinked up at him and watched as Len quickly disarmed the man and elbowed him in the face to knock him unconscious. The man in the black cloak dropped to the floor and Len turned to look down at Barry. It was only then that Barry noticed the red soaking through Len's shirt. The attacker had caught Len's arm with his knife.

"Oh my God, Len. You're bleeding!" Barry said, alarmed. Len looked at his arm and then shrugged before turning his cool eyes on Barry, who had now jumped up onto his feet.

"I'm fine, Kid," Len grumbled even as his head began to feel like cotton. "You did your heroes duty, now let's go." Len didn't wait for Barry's reply before he turned on his heels and began to march back in the direction where they'd left the horse. But he only made it a couple of steps before his legs gave out on him. Barry surged forward and was able to catch him as he began to fall to the ground.

"Len?" He questioned, unable to hold the dead weight of Len's body for long so he lowered him to the ground and noticed that the older man's eyes were now closed. " _Snart_!" he startled and quickly found his heartbeat in his neck. Barry sighed and allowed himself to relax slightly: he was only unconscious, not dead.

"He was cut?" Asked a quiet feminine voice and Barry looked over his shoulder to see the woman that Len had rescued slowly approaching him. He nodded, glancing back at the wound on Len's arm. It was shallow, though, this couldn't have been due to blood loss. "The assassin… he's known for using a blade laced with sleeping potion," the woman stated.

"Sleeping potion?" Barry asked. "So, Len'll wake up… right?"

"Not without true love's kiss."

"True lov… are you _kidding me_?" Barry muttered and the woman frowned at him. Only in fairy tales would _he_ look insane for doubting true love's kiss. This was ridiculous. Barry considered his options for a moment as he looked down at Len's sleeping face. He was too heavy for Barry to be able to carry him back to the horse. And even if he could… then what? Barry had absolutely no clue how to ride a horse so he'd never be able to go any further than that… he was lost in thought and so he jumped slightly when the woman spoke up again. She was standing much closer to them now.

"Thank you. You saved my life. And your friend, too; he's very heroic," the woman said softly and Barry couldn't help his laugh. He tried to swallow past the lump in his throat, that he hadn't even realised was forming, as he started talking.

"He would hate it if he could hear you call him that," Barry muttered and the girl frowned at him.

"Who hates being called a hero?" She asked and Barry had no words so he just shrugged. After a moment, the woman announced that she was going to leave to get help and Barry nodded without paying much attention. He wished he had a jacket or something to cushion Len's head with because the hard and bumpy ground didn't look too comfortable.

Barry wondered briefly if he should try to get Len on the back of that horse and just walk it forward to find the end of the world. Maybe the rules of this world didn't extend past the border? Maybe if Barry could get Len out of here then he'd just wake up by himself? But… what if he didn't? And what if the possibility of the 'true love's kiss' cure was only possible in this book? Barry didn't want to risk taking Len out of here without knowing for sure that he would be fine. Which meant that he'd probably just have to wait for Cisco to vibe the book again so that he could ask Harry some questions.

Barry sighed. Who knew how long he would have to wait? Or if Cisco even _could_ vibe the book again? He was still pretty new to his powers and didn't have the best control over them. Barry could be stuck here for a very long time. Maybe it was worth trying the…

No.

That was ridiculous. He was _not_ going to kiss Captain Cold. He wasn't in love with Len so why even try. And Len _definitely_ wasn't in love with him.

Except… Len _did_ keep trying to save his life. First at Ferris Air, then by warning him about Mardon and Jesse, and now this? That was an awful lot of good coming from a man who claimed to be a villain. But that didn't mean that Len was _in love_ with him! And the feelings that Barry felt whenever he was talking about Len, the insisting that he could be more than 'just a criminal', wasn't love either. He maybe lusted after the guy occasionally, but lust did not equate to love! And so it was stupid of Barry to even consider kissing Len right now.

Barry got up then and began to pace, his eyes flicking between Len and the unconscious assassin only a couple of feet away. Maybe there was a way to get someone that Len _did_ love into this world. Like Lisa! Len loved Lisa. And true love didn't have to be romantic love, after all, Frozen had proven that. Barry couldn't help the small laugh that burst out of him as he realised that he was using _Frozen_ , of all things, to help him come up with ideas for how to save Len. Maybe he should tell Len that once he wakes up. Barry was sure that the pun-loving criminal would get a kick out of it.

Barry looked back at Len and sighed. Maybe he should just… try it? He didn't really have anything to lose and this _was_ his only option right now. Barry shook his head but found himself dropping to his knees on the floor next to Len anyway. He leant down and began to close his eyes but then shook his head and pulled back again with a laugh.

"This is ridiculous," Barry muttered to no one and then moved so he was sitting down instead of kneeling. He sighed and then nodded to himself. "If you wake up now… please don't punch me," Barry muttered and then he kissed him. The kiss was… fine. Nothing especially magical about it. It was closed mouthed, _obviously_ because he wasn't about to go sticking his tongue in an unconscious man's mouth, and it felt… odd kissing someone who was responding to him. So he pulled back quickly. But when he opened his eyes he saw that Len was staring up at him and Barry's eyes went wide. Len didn't say anything for a moment and just blinked slowly up at Barry.

"Did you just kiss me?" Len drawled and Barry jumped back up onto his feet. He opened his mouth to respond but he didn't quite know how and just found himself stepping further back as Len sat up and watched him go… he didn't seem angry, at least.

But then Barry miss-stepped and ended up tripping over the assassin on the floor. The man groaned, waking up, and Len was on his feet instantly. Len quickly knocked the man out again with a punch to the face and then he was standing and walking away, seemingly forgetting about the kiss.

"Come on, I want to get back home," Len called over his shoulder, as he continued to walk off back towards the road, and Barry quickly followed him. Getting back on the horse with his crotch pressed firmly against Len's ass was even more awkward this time than it had been before. Barry hadn't even thought that that was possible.

And he couldn't stop thinking about what the woman had said about true love's kiss being the cure. But, _no_. This did _not_ mean that they were in love. Barry had kissed him and Len had woken up… but that had to have been a coincidence. Right? The woman must have been wrong! Because there was absolutely no way that he and Captain Cold were in love. But… if Barry really believed that he wasn't in love with Len, then why had he even bothered trying the kiss in the first place?

Thankfully, the ride didn't take much longer and soon Len and Barry found themselves at the edge of the story, a place where the road ahead and the woods surrounding them turned as white as a blank page of a book. It was so white that it almost appeared to be glowing. Len swiftly dismantled from the horse and turned to help Barry down too, though Barry wouldn't make eye contact. Together, they hesitantly walked closer towards the white space in front of them: there was no ground or sky, and there didn't appear to be an end to the white chasm either.

"What do we do? Just… walk through?" Len asked and Barry shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine," he muttered in reply and then took a deep breath before taking a step forward. He was just about to cross over the threshold into the white abyss when Len grabbed his arm and tugged him back. Without saying anything, Len kissed him. And Barry was so surprised that he almost didn't respond.

_Almost_. Because soon he was melting against Len's hold and leaning into him. He kissed back and then felt Len's tongue brush softly against his lips. He opened his mouth a little wider to the touch and their tongues met. Yep. This kiss was _miles_ better than the first one. Barry pressed up even closer as he attempted to deepen the kiss further.

But then Len was drawing back and Barry was left with his mouth hanging open as he could only blink in shock at the criminal in front of him. Barry quickly snapped his mouth shut and felt himself blush as Len said nothing and only nodded to himself. Then Len dropped his hold on Barry's arm and took a step back into the whiteness. He disappeared from Barry's view before he even had the chance to shout "wait!"

Barry took a deep breath to collect himself before following, feeling a gentle resistance against his skin as he went.

[] [] []

Len blinked and, in the space of one second to the next, he was suddenly standing in STAR Labs. Quickly, he looked down at his clothing and sighed contently when he noticed he was back in his parka with his cold gun strapped to his thigh. He took it out without thinking and smiled at the familiar weight of it in his hands.

"I've missed you," Len muttered to the weapon and then heard the distinct sound of the safety being clicked off of a gun behind him.

"Put that down, Snart," came Detective West's voice and Len sighed as he put his hands into the air and slowly turned around.

" _Cool it_ , Detective. I'm not going to do anything stupid," Len drawled. When he turned around he saw that Doctor Snow and Cisco also joined Detective West in the room.

"Where's Barry?" Snow asked and Len shrugged.

"He should be back any second now, don't you worry," Len smirked and before anyone else had time to make a snarky comment back, there was a bright white light filling the room. Len looked over his shoulder and Barry was suddenly standing there, his back to them while kitted out in the full Flash costume. Len certainly didn't mind _that_ view.

" _Barry_ ," Detective West breathed out a sigh of relief and was already lowering his weapon, and so Len took that as his chance to leave. He quickly lowered his hands and stepped back out of the room before anyone had the opportunity to stop him. He left STAR Labs in a hurry and hotwired a car a couple of streets away so that he wouldn't be spotted: this way he could shrug out of his parka and be less obvious to any passing cops.

A glance at the clock on the dash confirmed that it was 9:03pm and it had been an especially long day for Len. He considered going back to one of his safe houses, but he didn't want to answer questions from Mick or Lisa about where he'd been this past day. Right now, he just wanted a drink. He swiftly drove the car to Saints and Sinners, leaving it a couple of blocks away though because the owner had a rule about no one parking any stolen cars in her parking lot anymore.

As he ordered himself a drink and collapsed into a booth, Len tried not to think about the kiss. Or _kisses_ , really. Len may have been unconscious for the first one but Barry sure wasn't. And there he was thinking about it again.

But he just couldn't help it. Len was actually a little miffed that he missed out on their first kiss, not that he would let Barry (or anyone else, for that matter) onto that fact, but he understood that Barry had no choice: whatever had knocked him out had been magical… that was pretty obvious by the lack of drowsiness and disorientation that he'd felt coming out of it. And for a magical problem you needed a magical solution. True love's kiss ( _God,_ had Len really been saved by _true love's kiss_?) was the logical solution.

Len took a chug of his beer and sighed. He had already accepted a long time ago that he was in love with Barry Allen, but he'd never entertained the idea that Barry would be in love with him too. Now, though…? Now he needed a stronger drink.

Len probably shouldn't have been surprised when Barry showed up an hour later. He quickly sat in the seat opposite Len in the booth and said nothing.

"Can't get enough of me, Barry?" Len drawled and the speedster rolled his eyes.

"We should talk," he eventually settled on. "About the… _that_ ," he finished ineloquently and Len smirked.

"What's there to talk about, Barry? It happened. Now we move past it."

"Move past it as in…?" Barry questioned, his eyes big and round and innocent.

"As in… we keep going like normal."

"You want to forget it all ever happened?" Barry asked. And, _God_ , why did the kid have to sound so hurt by that? It wasn't like anything could ever really happen between the two of them. They led two completely different lives.

"No," Len admitted, despite himself. He _didn't_ want to forget it ever happened: that kiss had been… nice. He'd definitely enjoyed it and it was different, _good_ different, to know that the person he was kissing actually knew all of the baggage he was carrying around and still wanted him despite it all. "But… I'm a criminal and you're a cop. Let's face it, this isn't going to work."

"But I love you," Barry admitted, his voice barely wavering. Len, who had been about to stand up and leave, froze. He didn't look back at Barry as he spoke.

"You say that as though it's easy."

"It is. I mean, I tried to deny it at first… but not anymore."

"Love is never easy, Barry. Especially not in our… _unique_ situation. Ignoring the fact that I'm a crook and you're a CSI with a running problem, I can't imagine Cisco and the good Doctor being too happy that you're dating a man that has kidnapped them both. Do you really not think that that's going to affect your… _nightly activities_?" Len muttered.

"Just because it's difficult doesn't mean we shouldn't try. And I kinda already talked to them about it. I wanted their advice. They were actually surprised that we aren't _already_ dating." Len looked back at him then, and Barry's eyes were just as big and round and _beautiful_ as they had been before. And for a second, Len could imagine it: having someone to come home to who actually understood and loved him, the good _and_ the bad. Len's eyes flicked down to the table; he hadn't had a relationship like that in a long, _long_ , time. He was a little surprised, actually, by how much he wanted that with Barry now.

"This is going to blow up in our faces," Len said quietly and Barry laughed.

"I know." Barry was silent for a moment and Len didn't look back up until he, cautiously, began talking again. "Does that mean that… maybe… you want to… _try_?" He asked.

He did. He wanted to. And, well, Len had never been one to not go after what he wanted… once he decided he desired something he didn't give up until he had it. And here Barry was, offering himself up on a silver platter…

"Yes," Len said eventually. And Barry's answering smile was brighter than any diamond that he had ever stolen.

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't resist the gushy ending. Hey, it's a fairly tale, it needs a little bit of cutesy in it! I hope you guys liked it, leave me a comment to let me know your thoughts?


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